Columns

Since the November election, mixed signals and contradictory messages from our president-elect have bewildered Americans of almost every political persuasion.

For a few more weeks, we should all take a deep breath and recall that the lame-duck period between election and inauguration days is a longstanding feature of our uniquely American system of government that has often roused anxieties.

Gentle reader, the quadrennial presidential election is finally over, and barring some catastrophe, Donald J. Trump will take the oath, and enter upon the office of our president come 20 January, 2017.

The Nov. 8 election is drawing near. In fact with early voting starting next Wednesday, the election is practically underway. I heard a report just this week that the temperature of the election has reached such a fever that there might be enough votes cast during early voting to decide the presidential election in some states.

Last week, two respected polls projected that the votes of as many as 40 percent of Tennesseans will not count in the coming presidential election.

Some readers may assume that recent bombshells about the Republican presidential nominee must have overshadowed such shocking news. Others will see this as proof that our elections are indeed “rigged.”

What we suspected when we first learned of the deplorable showing of our Roane County high school students on their ACT exams (which as you will remember showed them to be tied for next to last place on the East Tennessee schools reported on in the News Sentinel, and well below the state average, and even farther below the national average,) was that this is a systemic problem directly traceable to the folks in charge of education in the county, viz. the Board of Education and their minions.

In the continued obliteration of locally owned business in this area, the latest casualty appears to be Citizens National Bank, headquartered in our neighboring McMinn County seat of Athens, with branches here in Roane County

A few days ago, I received a copy of a letter to depositors from Paul G. Willson, Chairman, and member of the founding family, announcing a merger with Simmons Bank, and last week I received a 58 page booklet concerning the details of this merger and its effects on depositors.

Author’s note: The following three premises are essential to this column: 1) None of us see the past or present with absolute clarity; 2) Each of us has the capacity for glimpses of informed insight that draw from and reflect our personal values; and 3) Cordial, forthright exchange of those insights enhances our mutual well being.

My past four columns have suggested election 2016 may not be as unprecedented as we imagine. But even accurate assessments lose credibility when taken to the extreme.